10 Foreign TV Shows That America Ruined

Now, before you get crazy, we’re not going to say The Office. In fact, there have been many television shows, including the aforementioned classic, that were adapted from foreign versions and have done great in America, or even been improved upon — American Idol began as the UK’s Pop Idol, Sanford and Son was originally a British hit called Steptoe And Son, and of course, the Columbian telenovela Yo soy Betty, la fea was remade as the great Ugly Betty. But for every successful American remake of another country’s show, there are five failed attempts — some of which are so bad they never even saw the light of day. Click through to see our list of ten foreign TV shows (yes, they’re mostly British originals, but that’s the trend in life as well as in our list) that America remade and totally ruined, and let us know your own major remake disappointments in the comments.

Skins

We all gaped when the pilot for the US remake of this British cult classic teen drama looked like it was almost recreated shot for shot. Though they did seem to follow most of our suggestions, from our standpoint the show looked harsher but was secretly much tamer than its UK counterpart. After a lot of hype that went nowhere and just one season, MTV cancelled the show, saying “Skins is a global television phenomenon that, unfortunately, didn’t connect with a US audience as much as we had hoped.”